The Internet and the World-Wide Web (WWW) are increasingly being used to distribute and sell content. For example, more and more content vendors are making movies, live sporting events, or news available to subscribers over the Internet. With the increase in network bandwidth and the rapid adoption of broadband and high-speed Internet access, even live television can be efficiently viewed and acquired via WWW browsers over the Internet.
With this new form of content delivery a host of problems are now being confronted by content vendors. One particular problem is piracy. The content of a provider generally enjoys copyright protection, but once the content is available to a legitimate licensee the content provider (licensor) cannot be assured that the licensee will not facilitate pirated versions of the content to the detriment of the licensor.
As result, content providers and content vendors have attempted to develop elaborate software and security techniques to ensure their content is not bootlegged. Yet, these very schemes are cumbersome, resource intensive, and make the content less attractive to even legitimate and honest licensees. Thus, content providers and vendors are in a catch 22 situation; provide the content in a flexible and user-friendly manner to sell it and live with some piracy or provide the content in a rigid and secure manner and forgo a lot of legitimate sales opportunities.
Another problem with content distribution is bandwidth, because even if a content provider sells content, the content is often distributed via servers operated by the content vendors. This means that if a particular content, such as a movie, is successful then distribution servers of the content vendor may get overwhelmed. As a result, buyers may become frustrated and sales may be lost. It is not the bandwidth of the buyer that is a problem; rather, it is the bandwidth overload of the content vendor that creates the bottleneck in content delivery.
Accordingly, improved techniques for protecting the intellectual property and delivery of content are needed.